Email Marketing Is NOT Dead

The death of email marketing has been greatly exaggerated.

One of the first things a company should do after they have created a website is to start collecting email addresses. You can even begin offline before your site is live.

The creation of an email marketing list is one of the most important assets a company or solopreneur can create.

Why You Need An Email List

If you build your online presence only on a social media platform, you are playing in someone else’s sandbox. We all now what happens to the when the kid with the ball gets upset, he goes home and takes the ball with you and you’re left with nothing.

The same can happen online- remember MySpace? If not, that makes my point all the more.

Creating an email list is not difficult. You can start for free with services like MailChimp or Constant Contact. With MailChimp, your first 2000 email addresses are free. Granted you don’t have access to all the features their paid service offers, but if the $10-$20 a month is too much to start with, go with the free account.

The Value Of Email Accounts

Since emails can be sent directly to your client or prospect, you have a much warmer audience with them than you do with the public at large.

Email accounts are valuable. Treat them with respect.

Before someone will give you their email address, they need to feel that they are getting something of value in return. Make sure you are providing value.

Providing Value Via Email Marketing

How do you use email to provide value? It depends on your industry.

First you should offer some sort of email opt-in incentive. This incentive could be a PDF that gives 5 tips of how to do X, Y, or Z. Or the PDF could tell people not to do A, B, or C. It could be a list of resources or a chapter of a book you’ve written.

Setting Expectations

You will also need to set expectations with your audience as to what you plan to do with their email address. Are you going to email them your daily or weekly blog post or only a month newsletter?

You will also want to make sure that you are compliant with the CAN-SPAM Act. If you don’t, you can face steep fines. Most email service providers will help you with this.

Conclusion

No matter your business, you should be involved in some type of email marketing.

It is too powerful a marketing tool to be left in the proverbial drawer.

We can help you set up your list on an autoresponder service, create sign up forms and develop campaigns to get local customers to opt into your list.

We can even help write and send your emails.